NEW YORK, NY May 20, 2005 —Two new institutions have opened to honor Malcolm X, on what would have been his 80th birthday. WNYC's Fred Mogul has more.

REPORTER: The Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center opened its doors yesterday for a preview. It is in the Audubon Ballroom, in Washington Heights, where he was shot and killed in 1965.

The building was slated to be demolished, and it mostly was—but community efforts saved at least this part of it. The center includes meeting areas, a library and video kiosks that one opening ceremony speaker likened to The Stations of the Cross.

Also opening yesterday was an exhibit and a large new Malcolm X archive at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, 30 blocks south, in Harlem. The Washington Heights center, meanwhile, does not formally open to the public until this summer.